Wilson v. Mazzuca, No. 03-2459

District court judgment denying plaintiff's petition for habeas corpus relief is reversed and remanded where: 1) the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act's deferential standard of review for a claim resolved on the merits by a state court is not displaced when a district court conducts additional fact finding in habeas proceedings; and 2) the court unreasonably applied clearly established federal law in concluding that that plaintiff received the effective assistance of counsel at his trial, as trial counsel's performance was objectively unreasonable and there is a reasonable probability that but for counsel's unprofessional errors the result of the proceeding would have been different. 

Read Wilson v. Mazzuca, No. 03-2459

Appellate Information
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Argued: April 8, 2008
Decided: June 24, 2009

Judges
Before: WALKER, CABRANES, and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by CABRANES, Circuit Judge.

Counsel
For Petitioner: Erik Bierbauer, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, NY.

For Respondent: Malancha Chanda, Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY.